Rebel News Podcast - Is Trudeau manipulating the re-approval of the TMX pipeline for his re-election strategy？

00:00:00.320 You're listening to a Rebel Media Podcast.

00:00:03.700 Tonight, the Trans Mountain Pipeline project was just re-approved by Trudeau.

00:00:09.200 Will the second time be the charm or will this summer of discontent being threatened on Canada by the anti-pipeline movement

00:00:17.280 scare the feds away from finally starting construction on this very expensive boondoggle?

00:00:24.000 It's June 20th, 2019. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:32.880 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:36.720 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:40.800 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:46.640 Today, I am announcing that our government has newly approved the Trans Mountain Expansion Project going forward.

00:01:00.960 The company plans to have shovels in the ground this construction season.

00:01:07.220 We've also been listening carefully to Canadians and hearing about their desire for a cleaner future.

00:01:14.040 That's why we've decided that every dollar the federal government earns from this project will be invested in Canada's clean energy transition.

00:01:25.020 As Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell puts it,

00:01:29.000 Pardon me if I don't get up and kiss Trudeau's butt. 1.00

00:01:32.140 But this re-announcement of the pipeline first approved back in 2016 is just shameless electioneering from a government polling well behind the Conservatives in just about every poll I have seen lately.

00:01:46.480 I won't kiss Trudeau's butt over this fake pipeline promise, and it ain't going to save his butt either.

00:01:53.260 Albertans are mad as hell, and they see right through the empty promise to build the pipeline, a promise they're making one more time.

00:02:02.240 And Trudeau's former allies in the far-left environmental movement are also mad as hell.

00:02:07.320 They're turning on him for selling them out to hang on to power at any and all costs.

00:02:12.320 Nanos has the Liberals four points behind the Conservatives.

00:02:15.540 CBC's poll tracker has the Liberals at over six points behind the Conservatives,

00:02:22.720 and I bet that broke some hearts down at the Mother Corp to have to put that story out.

00:02:28.240 And as a consequence, the Greens are surging as Trudeau fails to offer the levels of environmentalism his base voters have come to expect from him.

00:02:40.140 Even American Democrats are mad at Justin Trudeau.

00:02:43.960 Here is Washington's far-left Governor Jay Inslee engaging in a little foreign collusion of his own to landlock Canada's oil and gas.

00:02:53.660 He tweeted this,

00:02:54.520 When I announced my global climate mobilization plan, I said that confronting the climate crisis must become central to our foreign policy.

00:03:04.480 That goes for friends and foes alike.

00:03:07.200 The Trans Mountain Pipeline should not be built.

00:03:10.420 Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Russia, thank you for your continued service and advocacy, Jay.

00:03:16.580 By the way, don't people crap on Seattle streets as just a matter of routine these days?

00:03:22.300 So yeah, spare me the clean and green routine and get a handle on your own problems, Jay.

00:03:26.840 And that last point that I was making before would be fantastic about the aunties turning away from their golden boy if the aunties didn't want complete and total destruction of the Canadian economy 1.00

00:03:40.160 So that it can be rebuilt in such a way for us all to work on the government-owned wind farms of the future as maybe nipple greasers or as the sorry souls who have to wash the bird guts off the massive turbine blades. 0.50

00:03:54.500 And that's why I think Trudeau won't build this pipeline.

00:04:00.660 He's scared.

00:04:01.940 And he needs to get those green voters back. 0.51

00:04:04.360 So he's going to put up with the coming camp cloud redux and green lawlessness about to be unleashed on a beleaguered Canadian public. 0.96

00:04:13.940 Just look at this here.

00:04:15.680 Here is Sappora Berman.

00:04:17.280 You'll remember her as Rachel Notley's hand-picked co-chair of the Oil Sands Advisory Group.

00:04:25.160 She's a founder of Forest Ethics, remember that name, and an international program director of the anti-pipeline group StandEarth.

00:04:34.180 She actively organized against Trans Mountain while she was on the Oil Sands Advisory Group, getting paid by Albertans to decide the fate and future of the Oil Sands, all on Rachel Notley's watch.

00:04:47.280 And Berman cut her teeth in anti-industry activism 26 years ago in Clackawatt Sound, B.C., engaged in what is known as now the War in the Woods.

00:04:58.120 Anti-logging protests there led to mass arrests.

00:05:01.440 Violent anti-logging activists drove spikes into trees to sabotage innocent loggers.

00:05:07.100 If a chainsaw hit one of those spikes, it would damage the chainsaw at the very least.

00:05:11.600 And at worst, injure or maim or kill the logger if it caused the chainsaw to buck back out of the tree.

00:05:18.740 And if the spike didn't stop the tree from being cut down, then the spike would remain in the tree to damage equipment at the sawmill and maybe even harm someone there.

00:05:29.240 Forest Ethics was born directly of those protests.

00:05:32.940 You see, their ethics did not include not endangering dads and brothers as they went to do an honest day's work.

00:05:41.220 Of course, Berman's days of physically terrorizing hardworking men just trying to earn a paycheck are over.

00:05:49.080 She doesn't have to do the dirty work and get her hands dirty anymore. 1.00

00:05:52.760 She has cannon fodder, useful idiots who are part of her climate change doomsday cult to get themselves arrested for sabotage, violence, trespassing, vandalism, and, oh yeah, assaulting police officers. 1.00

00:06:07.700 You see, Berman has a bigger job now.

00:06:10.080 She can signal to Canada's competitors that Canada will remain closed for business because our feminist prime minister is scared of crossing her and ending up on her bad side. 1.00

00:06:21.620 Here is Berman on the Qatar state broadcaster Al Jazeera telling the Saudis, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, and the rest of OPEC that their market share is safe and sound in her capable hands.

00:06:36.020 Just watch.

00:06:36.880 The fact is the market is moving away from high-cost, high-carbon oil, which is what we have in Canada, and demand is softening.

00:06:47.080 Many countries around the world are banning the fossil fuel car, and that's why investors pulled out of this pipeline in the first place.

00:06:54.480 So our federal government bought it, is using $7 billion of taxpayers' money to buy this pipeline and build the expansion.

00:07:02.740 They could be using that $7 billion directly to fund clean energy without increasing pollution.

00:07:08.640 Does anyone know what the carbon tax is in Qatar?

00:07:10.860 Right, nothing.

00:07:12.660 But this seditious activist has no problem bashing her country to them. 1.00

00:07:17.080 And back at home?

00:07:18.420 Well, Berman is threatening us, in a manner of speaking.

00:07:21.680 Berman is sending a message, a strong message, to those of us who want pipelines full of freedom oil exported to the rest of the world to displace OPEC's tyranny oil.

00:07:32.200 The message is that Berman will make sure her cannon fodder idiots and true-believing sacrificial lambs are willing to do anything to stop the pipeline. 1.00

00:07:44.220 Just look at this tweet here from Notley's favourite anti-oil proxy, Sipporah Berman.

00:07:49.900 Canada, it's time to warrior up and stop TMX from coast to coast to coast.

00:07:56.340 Sign up for the fight of our lives.

00:07:58.500 This is a climate emergency.

00:08:00.500 It's time to act like it.

00:08:02.960 Now, I've never heard that phrase, warrior up.

00:08:05.480 And I'm already starting to get sick of hearing the phrase, climate emergency.

00:08:10.700 I know what it means to cowboy up.

00:08:13.540 We say it here on the prairies.

00:08:15.700 It's the rural version of the phrase, man up.

00:08:18.680 But what about warrior up?

00:08:20.620 I mean, besides the fact that it's a pretty strange phrase for a white woman to say is a battle cry if you're the kind of person who cares about things like cultural appropriation, and I bet Berman is one of those people.

00:08:34.700 What does it mean to warrior up?

00:08:37.700 Well, it's synonymous with industrial sabotage, communist-inspired anarchy, and violence.

00:08:44.320 From a website that acts as an online how-to guide for those wanting to follow Berman's advice and, quote-unquote, warrior up.

00:08:53.600 This project is inspired by the infrastructural sabotage carried out by indigenous warriors in the territory dominated by the Canadian state during land and water defense in the last decade.

00:09:06.280 We want to be a resource for anarchists and other rebels carrying out actions against the economy of death.

00:09:13.680 How can we make these actions more effective, safe, creative, and reproducible?

00:09:20.000 The website gives advice about how to make and plant Molotov cocktails and how to engage in the sabotage of infrastructure and heavy equipment.

00:09:30.260 The author of the website says, and I quote,

00:09:34.080 I feel strongly that, instead of bombs, a concentrated effort should be made to use well-designed, portable incendiary devices,

00:09:43.300 since a potent raging fire will always do more damage than a low-strength explosion.

00:09:50.040 Now, no, I'm not saying that this is exactly what Berman means when she says her cult followers need to warrior up.

00:09:59.200 But quite a few of them just might take it that way.

00:10:03.020 And it's not as though Berman herself is averse to using sabotage as a form of civil disobedience,

00:10:08.900 as we know from her time fighting the war in the woods.

00:10:12.940 But what I am saying is that the media will absolutely give Berman a pass for this.

00:10:18.500 They won't even acknowledge what could easily be interpreted as a call to very serious violence from her.

00:10:26.220 Instead, the media will write another long-winded, sympathetic story of her self-reported death threats

00:10:32.780 that she blames on Jason Kenney, of all people, and pro-oil sands activist Robbie Picard

00:10:38.280 without ever asking her to produce evidence of these so-called threats.

00:10:43.200 You know, as long as she's not a frustrated, out-of-work conservative, jokingly saying,

00:10:49.620 lock her up, I guess everything she says is fine.

00:10:52.880 Stay with us. More Up Next after the break.

00:10:55.780 So, approving pipelines isn't the only thing happening in oil country,

00:11:14.140 deep in the heart of oil country, oil country HQ, Calgary.

00:11:18.860 Well, they've had some problems of their own lately.

00:11:21.800 They've got a tax revolt on their hands, and they aren't being very transparent with the taxpayers

00:11:27.640 about the amount of money they spent on their thankfully failed Olympic bid.

00:11:32.760 Joining me to talk about all that and more is my friend William Macbeth from Save Calgary.

00:11:37.940 William, thanks so much for joining me today.

00:11:40.940 Oh, thanks for having me, Sheila. It's always great to be here.

00:11:43.080 The first thing I want to talk about, you watch Calgary City Hall, I watch Calgary City Hall.

00:11:50.040 The controversial idea brought forward by Nenshi's biggest pain in the butt, Jeremy Farkas,

00:11:58.260 he wants to have a council tracker posted on the front page of this city website

00:12:06.140 to show everybody how the people they send to office vote on certain issues.

00:12:12.400 And apparently this is a controversial idea. Go figure.

00:12:16.840 Yeah. You know, you would think that something so fundamental is how your local representative voted

00:12:23.060 on a key issue would be information that is easily accessible on the city of Calgary's website.

00:12:28.580 But actually, the city of Calgary is one of the worst when it comes to making information easily accessible to voters.

00:12:36.380 Now, I think for people who have focused on Calgary municipal politics,

00:12:40.080 they'll remember that the Manning Foundation used to do a council tracker where it analyzed votes

00:12:47.220 and, you know, counted the number of times the councillor voted to increase the size of government

00:12:52.080 or counted the number of times the councillor voted to hike property taxes.

00:12:55.540 But acquiring that information required a team of researchers to go through PDF minutes of council and committee meetings

00:13:04.520 and then input that data manually into spreadsheets for tracking.

00:13:09.500 It was a hugely costly and time and resource intensive activity

00:13:14.440 because the city of Calgary just doesn't want you to know how people vote.

00:13:19.100 In fact, the only way you really would know how council votes is by watching city council.

00:13:23.400 And for most people, watching city council makes them feel pretty queasy after the first few minutes.

00:13:28.860 So it's not something that a lot of everyday people do.

00:13:32.700 And so when Jeremy suggested that we have an easier way to see how our elected representatives vote,

00:13:37.240 councillors lost their minds.

00:13:39.340 It's the only charitable way to describe it.

00:13:42.060 You know, it's so crazy how they really don't want the voters to know what they're doing.

00:13:50.300 It is bizarre. And Calgary City Council is one of the most cloistered and closed-up city councils in the entire country.

00:14:00.020 No, you're absolutely right.

00:14:01.360 I mean, of course, back when we had a council tracker,

00:14:04.280 we knew that Calgary City Council spent more time meeting in secret behind closed doors

00:14:09.840 than any other city council in Canada.

00:14:12.080 In fact, I think it meant in secret more than every other city council in Canada combined.

00:14:17.780 Calgary meets in secret hundreds and hundreds of times a year.

00:14:22.360 In cities like Ottawa and Winnipeg and Edmonton, which are roughly, you know,

00:14:26.900 sort of in that sort of big-ish city range, they're meeting once, twice, five times at most.

00:14:34.380 And it's to discuss highly sensitive information.

00:14:37.380 Whereas Calgary, the position seems to be, it defaults to being in secret.

00:14:41.720 And once in a blue moon, they'll do something in public because, you know,

00:14:45.940 that's how you lead a world-class city is by giving scraps of information to voters

00:14:50.540 so that they never really know the full story of what's going on at City Hall.

00:14:54.680 You know, speaking of wanting to be a world-class city,

00:14:58.340 thankfully, thanks to the hard work of the good folks at Save Calgary,

00:15:04.900 Calgary's quest for an Olympic bid was quashed.

00:15:09.480 But we still don't really know the true cost of the Olympic bid.

00:15:13.860 And all the reports haven't been released yet.

00:15:16.440 There are still 12 reports that remain unreleased.

00:15:20.320 And again, Nenshi's nemesis, Jeremy Farkas, says that, you know,

00:15:26.660 every single receipt should be released to the public

00:15:28.800 so they know what was spent to try to sell Calgarians on this terrible idea

00:15:35.360 and how much public money was used on it.

00:15:41.300 I think you're absolutely right.

00:15:43.580 I mean, getting from start to finish, from the entirety of this three-year odyssey,

00:15:49.960 getting any information about these Olympics was like pulling teeth.

00:15:53.860 And at every opportunity, Calgary City Council and the people running the Olympic bid process

00:16:01.160 kept that information out of the hands of voters.

00:16:04.180 In fact, I think voters of Calgary will remember that we were promised

00:16:07.860 a full financial costing of the Olympic Games several weeks before the vote.

00:16:13.780 And in reality, they only got it to us in the dying hours of that plebiscite.

00:16:18.880 And even then, it didn't provide as much detailed financial information as voters needed

00:16:23.060 in order to make an informed choice.

00:16:25.900 And, you know, their strategy was, we'll just trust us.

00:16:28.660 Well, I have to say, trust is earned.

00:16:30.500 And this is not a city who has earned the trust of voters.

00:16:33.700 So you're right.

00:16:34.860 Here we are, you know, coming up on eight months or nine months past when this vote happened.

00:16:41.540 And we still have no real clear financial picture about how much was spent and what it was spent on.

00:16:47.680 We know some, but we don't know enough.

00:16:50.800 And certainly, we don't have a picture of what kind of resources and discussions and promises

00:16:56.700 were being made about these Olympics behind closed doors.

00:17:00.680 And for those of us who, you know, follow City Hall, we're not reflexively against any project.

00:17:09.440 We want to see projects on their merits and see what are the upsides, what are the downsides,

00:17:15.140 what, you know, revenue does it generate or what will it cost.

00:17:18.380 And the frustrating part of Calgary City Council is it never gives you that information on any major decision.

00:17:24.200 And I think a lot of voters have said enough is enough.

00:17:26.580 Certainly, in our opinion, the Olympic vote was the line in the sand that said, we don't like how you do business, City Hall.

00:17:33.660 And we are not writing you yet another blank check to just spend our money because, oh, just trust us.

00:17:39.840 We're going to get it right.

00:17:41.860 Yeah.

00:17:42.060 And, you know, speaking of blank checks to just go around spending money, you know, there really is a tax revolt going on in Calgary right now

00:17:51.380 with businesses actively posting their tax bills online and showing just the massive increases in their tax bills.

00:17:59.620 And Chestermere, a neighboring community, is lowering their taxes to try to attract some communities from or some businesses to their community from Calgary.

00:18:09.280 And I just don't think City Hall really gets it yet.

00:18:13.840 Like they have had a little bit of, well, you know, we could have handled this a different way, blah, blah, blah.

00:18:18.800 But they're not saying it's time to cut taxes.

00:18:21.180 It's time to examine pensions.

00:18:22.920 It's time to examine salaries.

00:18:24.660 They're not there yet.

00:18:26.380 And in the meantime, businesses are rallying against City Hall in a way that I have never seen before.

00:18:34.020 I think we can honestly say this is an unprecedented situation here in Calgary, what we're seeing with small businesses.

00:18:41.320 You know, when we talked a while ago, there had been a rally happening on the steps of Calgary City Hall where small businesses were demanding action from a city council.

00:18:51.180 That had failed to show leadership on this issue.

00:18:53.980 What was interesting is when that rally wrapped up, many of those small business owners went inside to sit in the gallery, in the public gallery, and they wanted to speak to council.

00:19:04.800 They wanted to share their information, to tell the stories of how their businesses are struggling, of how they're having to lay off staff or reduce hours or even contemplate closing down altogether because they can't afford their tax bills.

00:19:17.920 Well, first of all, council took a vote, and it only passed by one to let any business owners speak at that council meeting.

00:19:27.120 So a near majority of council didn't think it was important enough to hear from small business owners at the council meeting discussing property tax crisis for small business owners.

00:19:37.940 So that, to me, sums up Calgary's attitude right there.

00:19:41.500 Well, we recognize there's a crisis, but let's not hear from any of the people who are actually facing this crisis in their day-to-day lives.

00:19:48.060 And then city council said, well, then what would you cut?

00:19:51.920 What would you reduce as a service for the city in order to do it?

00:19:55.900 And the small business owners rightfully said, excuse me, you were elected city council, you ran, you put your name on the ballot, you get paid a very generous salary, one of the highest in Canada for city councils, and you get a great pension on top of it.

00:20:10.220 We're not going to do your job for you and look for savings in the city of Calgary.

00:20:15.800 Don't put it on us.

00:20:17.040 You made this problem, and it's your job to solve it.

00:20:21.560 You know, hold on a second here, William.

00:20:23.300 Are they taking suggestions about how to cut spending down at city hall?

00:20:28.700 Because I think you and I have some ideas, especially when we both did a little bit of research to shine a light on some of the more ridiculous salaries down at city hall, like their walking coordinator and their, you know, livable cities or whatever it was, livable streets.

00:20:46.440 I think the livable streets coordinator, what on earth is that?

00:20:49.860 I mean, good Lord.

00:20:51.360 But yeah, I mean, city hall is littered with all kinds of crazy positions that really could be shown the door or that are just ridiculously overpaid.

00:21:01.940 These people could go the way of the buffalo through attrition.

00:21:05.140 You don't even have to fire them.

00:21:06.280 You just have to not rehire them and not post for them.

00:21:09.500 But, I mean, even that is too difficult and too controversial for the city of Calgary to do.

00:21:17.220 And it feels as though they are very scared of the public sector unions, I suppose, as most governments are.

00:21:25.620 No, and I think when push comes to shove, you're absolutely right that that is where their biggest fear lies.

00:21:32.920 So, we're not out of this tax crisis yet.

00:21:36.100 I think it's really important that people know that even though council did vote to cut taxes by 10%, what they actually voted was to cut the tax hike by 10%.

00:21:46.620 So, taxes are still going up hugely for businesses across the city.

00:21:51.320 What council did at their meeting did nothing to fix the larger problem.

00:21:56.460 I also want to say they're trumpeting their spending cuts.

00:21:59.020 And they said, we've cut $60 million at the city of Calgary.

00:22:02.880 And we've cut 500 positions, which is a figure I love.

00:22:07.540 Because, actually, if you dig into it, what they're cutting is proposed spending increases and proposed hires.

00:22:15.320 So, they're not actually cutting spending.

00:22:17.780 They're cutting how much they were going to increase spending, but they're still increasing it.

00:22:22.680 And to put into context, you know, and Drew Farrell, who, you know, we have a great relationship, Drew Farrell and us, one of our city councillors here.

00:22:29.400 She said, well, these cuts are too deep and too drastic.

00:22:33.000 The city of Calgary is a $4 billion annual operation.

00:22:37.540 $60 million represents 1.5% across a $4 billion operation.

00:22:44.840 We raise spending, on average, above 5% a year and have since 2010 when, you know, the city of Calgary stopped publishing numbers before that.

00:22:54.980 So, in my mind, if you've grown spending by 40% over an eight-year period, you can't then turn around and say a 1.5% reduction is too drastic for, you know, for the city to grapple with.

00:23:09.800 And you're right.

00:23:10.580 It comes down to unions.

00:23:12.480 I did a little wandering through councillor donor reports.

00:23:16.240 So, of course, even though we're not great at putting out information, it took me about 15 minutes to dig through the city of Calgary website to finally find it, you can find the reports from the 2017 election on how much city councillors raised and spent on their campaigns.

00:23:31.420 And it is clear that public sector unions, you know, the big city unions and their allies and affiliated groups are the single biggest donors to some of our more progressive, i.e. tax and spend happy city councillors.

00:23:46.940 And so, of course, they're terrified of having to cut spending and pensions and benefits and perks because they know that it means attacking the people who put them into office and who funded their way to the comfy, well-paid jobs that they're all sitting in now.

00:24:02.520 And when we say city of Calgary jobs are well-paid, let's be completely clear.

00:24:07.480 Economist Jack Mintz, a respected economist who's done a lot of work on public finance and public finance reform, analyzed spending data for the city of Calgary.

00:24:17.400 An average position, the average for a city of Calgary position is now $115,000 a year in salary and benefits.

00:24:26.040 That's the average.

00:24:27.040 So if we've got, you know, how high do entry-level jobs have to be paying here at the city in order to get to an average of $115,000?

00:24:37.040 That's huge.

00:24:38.320 You know, I can't think of another industry where that's the average wage.

00:24:42.920 And I think it's one of the reasons why everyday Calgarians, and particularly small business owners who are facing a crisis right now, are so fed up with city council's lack of leadership and the fact that they say, well, you tell us where to cut.

00:24:54.580 Or, well, we can't cut more than just the little bit off the top because it's too drastic.

00:24:59.980 No.

00:25:00.640 We need structural reform.

00:25:02.020 We need it now.

00:25:03.160 And if this council won't do the job, then we need a council that will in the next election.

00:25:07.580 Well, and, you know, there are things that the city does that they shouldn't be doing, that the private sector could be doing.

00:25:14.080 For example, running golf courses.

00:25:16.520 Why does the city, A, own golf courses in the first place?

00:25:22.820 B, why are they losing money on golf courses?

00:25:25.700 Well, I think I probably know the answer why they're losing money on golf courses, and it probably has something to do with salaries.

00:25:32.300 There's probably no reason why the beer cart girl needs to be a part of the public sector union making, you know, public sector union wages. 1.00

00:25:40.380 Thankfully, the city's closing the one golf course, but only after they spent years losing money.

00:25:48.280 I think $165,000 they lost last year on running a golf course.

00:25:54.800 Yeah, it is funny.

00:25:55.980 I mean, maybe you could argue that the city should be running a golf course if it was making a great profit off of it,

00:26:02.620 and that was being used to, you know, help fund city operations.

00:26:05.980 It's not.

00:26:06.580 The city is losing money on a golf course.

00:26:09.040 And what I think is a little bit ironic, of course, is Councillor Farkas, the hero of the everyday Calgarian, the everyday taxpayers and business owners,

00:26:18.300 he said, well, let's cut our own council budget by a small amount in order to show that we're sharing in that pain.

00:26:24.860 And he was derided by his fellow councillors who said, oh, it's a meaningless amount.

00:26:29.840 It's only going to work out to $70,000 or $80,000 saved.

00:26:33.820 Well, yeah, and now they're heralding the closure of this golf course saying, oh, we're going to save $150,000 a year.

00:26:40.300 It's like, well, okay, first of all, you've been losing that money for, you know, goodness knows how long.

00:26:44.680 That's not the same thing.

00:26:45.560 Why is $150,000 saved so much more impressive than the $70,000 that Councillor Farkas had, you know, got saved for taxpayers that you make fun of them for?

00:26:56.860 So, you know, the relationship on council is, I think, now dysfunctional.

00:27:01.660 There is simply no respect on the part of many councillors for those who have tried to stand up for fiscal responsibility and for sensible policy.

00:27:10.820 And they're behaving like children in the sandbox now.

00:27:14.280 There's name-calling.

00:27:15.740 They're being mean girls, frankly. 0.98

00:27:17.420 They're doing to Jeremy Farkas the you-can't-sit-with-us routine and forcing him outside of their little clique of city councillors when they make decisions and discussions.

00:27:28.300 It's frankly sad.

00:27:29.360 But I think many, I hope Calgarians, and I hope actually voters in every municipality who have councils like this, take a good hard look at who they're electing every single election and sending to City Hall and saying, you know what, if we're not happy with the outcome we're getting, the thing we have to change are the people we're sending to City Hall in the first place.

00:27:51.200 So that's what we have come to believe, that, frankly, reforming this council is just not possible.

00:27:56.960 We're looking forward now to how we get a better council in 2021.

00:28:02.080 Well, and this council really is out of touch with the concerns of the regular Calgarians.

00:28:06.780 I mean, off-camera, you and I were talking about this latest discovery of public art that's somewhere near the Great Plains Arena.

00:28:16.620 And, you know, I came across it on Twitter, and it looks like a sinkhole, like a failed, like architecturally unsound landscaping project fenced off with security fencing.

00:28:30.320 And apparently it cost $150,000.

00:28:34.000 It sits near the Great Plains Arena, and it's supposed to represent a face-off circle.

00:28:38.340 But, I mean, walking past, you wouldn't think, what a breathtaking piece of public art.

00:28:42.940 The community is sure enriched by this.

00:28:45.060 I would be like, kids, don't go near there.

00:28:46.480 You'll fall in a hole.

00:28:47.960 It's so crazy.

00:28:50.060 I think you're right.

00:28:51.020 I don't think anybody seeing Calgary public art will think to themselves, oh, my gosh, am I in Paris?

00:28:55.980 Am I in Milan?

00:28:57.180 No, they're going to look at that and say, obviously, they didn't do an engineering study before they started digging that hole because the top of it's caving in.

00:29:05.900 And, great, we're spending $150,000 on yet another monstrous piece of public art.

00:29:11.720 Or, we've just spent all of the money we've saved from closing our money-losing golf course.

00:29:16.900 Isn't that city council summed up in a tee?

00:29:19.200 What are their priorities?

00:29:20.800 Obviously, it's not getting serious about our fiscal crisis.

00:29:24.300 It's give with one hand, take away with the other, and let's ignore the fundamental issues facing our city.

00:29:31.400 And I think it's why so many Calgarians are finally saying enough is enough, and we're seeing rallies in the streets and on the steps of city hall demanding change from city council.

00:29:41.020 Well, I do think that Calgarians are starting to pay attention, but I think you guys at Save Calgary play a big role in that.

00:29:47.420 Where can people find you?

00:29:49.200 How can they get more information?

00:29:50.620 And, more importantly, how can they support you?

00:29:52.700 Because you guys really do operate on a shoestring budget, and you really punch up every single day.

00:29:57.720 Oh, well, thank you.

00:29:59.360 Well, we certainly don't have the kind of resources that apparently the city of Calgary has to throw around at every project under the sun.

00:30:05.480 That's for certain.

00:30:06.660 You can check us out online, savecalgary.com.

00:30:09.340 We also have presence on Facebook and on Twitter.

00:30:12.580 And the ways to really help out are, first of all, sign up to our mailing list and get our weekly newsletters.

00:30:19.960 Share them with your family and friends and encourage them to become better informed on municipal issues.

00:30:24.600 Obviously, making a financial contribution helps.

00:30:27.860 We don't get money, surprisingly, from the big city unions.

00:30:30.940 Apparently, our call for salary reductions and pension reform doesn't go over so well with those who are getting the pensions and the salaries.

00:30:39.340 So we rely on what little money Calgarians still have left after they pay their tax bills as contributions in order to fund our operations.

00:30:46.620 So certainly, if you make a contribution to us, we use it in turn to hold city council's feet to the fire.

00:30:52.900 And I think that from the perspective of fiscal responsibility, there aren't enough voices doing that.

00:30:58.040 And if we lose Save Calgary, then I don't know who else is going to step up and try and fight for fiscal reform down at City Hall.

00:31:05.920 Boy, you guys are a group that Mayor Nenshi would love to see just disappear off the political landscape.

00:31:13.260 But I doubt that you will.

00:31:15.500 And I think that Calgary needs you more than ever.

00:31:17.880 William, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:31:19.640 Thank you for being so generous with your time with us today.

00:31:24.020 Stay with us.

00:31:24.860 More up next after the break.

00:31:26.740 I'll be back with your questions and comments.

00:31:28.860 Now, this is the part of the show where Ezra normally takes questions or reads viewer comments.

00:31:45.900 Even sometimes he reads his hate mail.

00:31:48.100 Now, I personally like your comments the best.

00:31:50.820 And since I'm in the driver's seat today, that's exactly what we're going to do with the time we still have together.

00:31:57.400 Rebel correspondent Jessica Switanovski.

00:32:00.780 Apologies, Jessica, if I butchered your last name, which Google speech-to-text frequently changes to switching off to ski.

00:32:09.060 Well, she was recently in the Philippines chasing the story of Canada's much-traveled garbage ship.

00:32:15.260 Jessica found some common ground with a Greenpeace activist in Manila on the topic of first-world garbage colonialism.

00:32:24.520 Liza Rosie writes,

00:32:26.360 Great interview, Jessica.

00:32:52.800 Jessica, great interviewee as well.

00:32:55.160 You know what?

00:32:55.500 I completely agree.

00:32:56.480 And I think Jessica is doing great work and real journalism from on the ground in the Philippines.

00:33:01.980 And thank you to everybody out there who helped cover the cost to send her there to bring you the other side of the story.

00:33:08.300 And you can see the rest of her stories at garbageship.com.

00:33:12.220 Now, on to my story about Catherine McKenna taking chauffeur-driven limos to events to lecture other people about taking public transit.

00:33:21.460 You literally can't make this stuff up.

00:33:23.300 Bruce Atchison writes,

00:33:25.660 What a hypocrite McKenna is.

00:33:27.700 Imagine being chauffeured to a bus barn to promote public transit.

00:33:33.080 No wonder people call her climate Barbie. 1.00

00:33:36.060 She couldn't be seen riding with the proles.

00:33:38.460 That wouldn't do for somebody so privileged and supposedly important.

00:33:44.420 Ain't that the truth, Bruce?

00:33:46.240 And the theme of this entire liberal government is just that.

00:33:50.720 Rules for them and their fancy friends and separate rules for the rest of us.

00:33:56.060 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:33:59.200 Thanks so much for tuning in.

00:34:01.520 And thank you, Rebel Headquarters office staff, for turning what I've given you into the show that everybody's watching.

00:34:08.140 I'm back guest hosting again tomorrow.

00:34:10.420 So I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the very same place.

00:34:14.440 And remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:34:26.060 We'll see you next time.

Rebel News Podcast - June 21, 2019

Is Trudeau manipulating the re-approval of the TMX pipeline for his re-election strategy？

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